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Ancestor: Felis catus (Domestic Cat)

Descendants 2 Myh:

Mergs
Barrel Cats

Size: 50cm long (78cm including tail), 35cm height
Weight: 5.5kg

Dietary Needs: The bulk of this cat's diet is mice and birds. Squid and shellfish such as crayfish, prawns and rarely bivalves make up a smaller proportion. The smallest proportion of their diet is rabbits. They can survive on a diet of land animals but may not be able to catch enough all year round (especially if it's too hot), so are reliant on the sea and river animal life to meet some of their caloric needs. They are much more tolerant of carrion than their pampered ancestors.

Life Cycle: Females have a longer anestrus which spans from the last litter she had in the cool dry season to the end of the hot dry season. Estrus occurs in the summer monsoon. Males compete to mate with females against other males. They don't raise kittens or have much to do with them, but will tolerate the ones that are his identifying his own scent from them, and remembering females he mated within his territory. He will fight other males rather than leaving the kittens to fate. He will also nuzzle the kittens, leaving his glandular secretions. This will make other males think twice about harming them as it shows he is attentive to their existence. The father is vengeful and the intruding male would be marked for death by the kitten's blood if he were to harm them, so they will usually avoid taking this risk and leave them alone. This results in an increase in survival of kittens with attentive fathers in an environment where males try to force females to become receptive. The reason why females produce kittens in the emerging dry season is twofold: 

1. Cats have not adapted to the extreme heat of this planet in it's natural greenhouse state. The coolest months are kindest to kittens, which is the dry season when the sun is slightly lower in the sky, so females must get pregnant and gestate before then. The wet monsoon season in late summer is also not favourable as it's suffocatingly hot and humid, even if rainy and cloudy.

2. Tiny mammals and birds are most abundant for a few months after monsoons. Their great numbers will die off during droughts, but the kittens will be eating a lot of that die-off.

When conditions on land become harsh and dry the kittens will be much larger and heavier, closer to the size and weight of adult cats. They are large enough to start learning to hunt in the water, and will have built up kitten fat reserves to pull through the training period where they might not eat as much as the more successful adults.

Occasionally females go into oestrus half a year out of sync with the population majority, having kittens in the milder spring rainy season when warmth and rain are returning to the landscape and mice and birds have their first breeding season of the year. Spring kittens are much less common than fall kittens because the summer heat and humidity is so harsh, causing even healthy kittens to suffer heat stress and die. Spring kittens occur more frequently further South where winters are not as accommodating and might get cold.

Reproductive development completes after the first year. Many beach cats have their first litter the year after they were born.

Other: Beach cats have many different methods for hunting aquatic prey.

Crouching outside of the water: From a rocky ledge they remain still and waiting until prey comes near. Then they can either bat the prey out of the water or hook it with a claw, or they can jump in, pull it close and kill it by chewing it. Having a longer mouth assists with this. The jumping in is riskier especially in deep water, but increases the chance of success.

Wading in the water: Similarly the cat will stand in wait. They won't wait in water too deep as to launch themselves at prey they need some movement through air to build momentum. The water causes too much resistance. When they see prey very close they will lunge at it face-first to catch it directly in the mouth, sometimes using their paws to prevent escape. If they prey isn't coming near enough the cat can leap out and over the water before surprising it's prey from the sky, but only if the water is about ankle deep for the cat. 

Subspecies:

• Black-Eared Beach Cats - Blond fur with darkened skin to block harmful U.V. rays. This is particularly striking on the ears (where the fur is shortest and the skin shows through) contrasting with the light fur, giving them the common name "black-eared beach cat".  They also have the most reduced ears. They also have black noses, lips, eyelids and any other exposed area of skin. Lives in the Northernmost, hottest part of the species' range where it relies more on the sea for food.

• Black-Eared Beach Cat x Western Beach Cat - Occurs in a hybrid zone between the diverging Black-Eared Beach Cat and Western Beach Cat populations. Genes flow slowly across the coast resulting in a genetic gradient between the two purest expressions of the subspecies.

• Island Beach Cat - The most genetically distinct subspecies isolated by rising sea levels on an island at the South of the species' range. The climate is more temperate with winters that experience night-time chill. The fur of these cats is still dense but isn't as short, having longer thicker hairs between their shorter softer more insulating hairs that curve backwards all in the same direction so that cat is still streamlined in the water and it traps air or water, creating heat insulation. Although the island is large they can't expand, so to begin with there was continuous competition for the limited territory before the cats started to share space. There is also another cat species on the island, a much smaller forest cat more suited for the inland and upland habitat. They compete with and sometimes mob kill this other cat, but will also hunt more in the sea to avoid overlap of hunting resources. Being larger not only helps them with interspecies competition and intraspecies competition, it also helps them keep warm in the cooler temperate waters and increases the size limit of aquatic prey they can take. Their overall competitiveness towards their own species is also lessened to a more ritualistic competition rather than mortal. This is because overall cooperating is better for this coastal life against squid prey that can sometimes be dangerous. They cooperate to alert each other of large squid much as the rest of the species do. There is a lessened need to possess the limited space when cooperation aids their survival, so they are less territorial to their own species.